Finally got my garage workbench lighting right after 2 years of squinting

I've been fighting with shadows in my garage forever. Got sick of it last week and grabbed two 4-foot LED shop lights from Home Depot for like $40 each. Mounted them on the ceiling at a 45 degree angle instead of straight down like I always did before. Total game changer for seeing what I'm actually doing when I'm wrenching on stuff after dark. Learned that the angle matters way more than the brightness rating on the box. Now I can actually see the bleeder valve on a brake caliper without holding a flashlight in my teeth. Anyone else fought with garage lighting or found a trick that worked better than just adding more bulbs?

2 comments

2 Comments

briannguyen9d ago

Heard a pro cabinet maker say the same thing about angle over brightness.

sandra1469d ago

My friend re-did her whole kitchen last year and spent a fortune on those bright LED strip lights under the cabinets. She was so proud of them until she had a dinner party and realized every single smudge and fingerprint on her dark granite countertops just screamed at you. Her cabinet guy came by to fix a drawer and told her flat out she should have gone with a warmer, angled light that casts shadows instead of washing everything out. She ended up swapping all the strips for puck lights that point toward the backsplash and it made the whole room look so much better.